A good quality organic gardening compost is at the heart of a healthy organic garden. Getting hold of the good stuff! Here are some tips on how to acquire good quality compost, what to look out for in a compost and how to use it effectively.

Organic Gardening Compost is the Perfect Food for Healthy Plants

A good quality organic gardening compost is at the heart of a healthy organic garden.

Getting hold of the good stuff!

Here are some tips on how to acquire good quality compost, what to look out for in a compost and how to use it effectively.

First there's a look at what it is that compost does for us - and the soil. Then there's a method for producing a reasonably good compost in a very easy way. Lastly, there's a look at other ways to get quality compost.

Compost for life

Organic gardening compost is compost for life!

Compost has lots of benefits for your garden. It feeds the soil and the micro-organisms in the soil, it helps the soil to retain moisture and it provides structure so that plants can grow effectively. It also benefits wildlife by providing food sources.

A good organic gardening compost releases nutrients into the soil for take-up by plants. It is rather like good quality food for us humans - and animals.

If you eat well, you are healthy and strong and you do not easily succumb to disease. Your energy levels are good and your food sustains you for hours on end.

Eat lots of poor quality, processed foods, laden with fats and sugars but deficient in nutrition and sooner or later your health deteriorates. Your strength and vitality wanes and you spend a lot of your valuable time in doctors' waiting rooms!

Just like us, plants need quality nutrition. That nutrition comes from the breakdown and decay of plant and animal wastes. Worms, beetles and a myriad micro-organisms in the soil contribute to the process.

If you feed your plants with industrial fertilisers only and don't return natural fertility to the soil, your soil becomes more and more depleted of the nutrients needed for plant health.

Yes, commercial fertilisers will supply NPK - Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potash (Potassium) and some of the better ones may supply some of the trace minerals. But your soil will not be receiving the rich and complex nutrition it needs. For more on why it is important to build soil fertility with organic compost see

Picture below: Your homemade organic gardening compost can be used for planters and containers too. Click the picture for more on container gardening.

Making your own compost

Making your own organic gardening compost is really very easy. Here is one of the easiest ways to produce a reasonable compost which will help feed your soil. It will add fertility and structure but it won't be weed-free, so it needs to be used carefully.

The easiest method for making organic gardening compost

First collect suitable materials over a period of time.

You can use any organic matter that you can find except for domestic pet and human waste and meat products. Manure from dogs and cats is too likely to spread diseases. Human waste is also fraught with problems, so stick to farmyard manure and garden and vegetable kitchen wastes.

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